Electronics manufacturer Qisda Corp (佳世達) plans to add another production base in Southeast Asia in addition to Vietnam as it prepares for potential trade uncertainty due to US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.
The company is on the lookout for possible sites in Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines, Qisda president Joe Huang (黃漢州) said at an earnings conference in Taipei.
Because it is not easy to build a factory overseas, the company is considering setting up a local unit and renting an existing factory, Huang said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
“The US tariff policy is bound to set off adjustments in global supply chains and Qisda has been preparing to respond flexibly, including building a resilient supply chain with multisite production,” Huang said.
Qisda — which mainly produces information technology products such as displays and projectors, industrial computers, and networking and communications devices — has production sites in Taiwan and China, and launched operations in Vietnam in 2020.
Qisda reported revenue of NT$54.1 billion (US$1.65 billion) last quarter, up 7 percent year-on-year, the highest quarterly level in the past two years.
Gross margin was 16.3 percent in the fourth quarter last year, surpassing 16 percent for seven consecutive quarters. It was the highest figure in the same period for 20 years, the company said.
However, net profit fell 55 percent year-on-year to NT$191 million due to continued booking of inventory impairment losses from its smart solutions subsidiary Metaage Corp (邁達特數位), the company said.
Earnings per share were NT$0.10, down from NT$0.22 a year earlier, it said.
For the whole of last year, revenue was down 1 percent at NT$201.7 billion, with the information technology group contributing NT$110.5 billion, up 4 percent year-on-year, while revenue at the high-value business group — including the medical and artificial intelligence of things businesses — fell 8 percent to NT$93.1 billion.
Last year’s net profit fell 27 percent to NT$2.16 billion and earnings per share dropped to NT$1.11 from NT$1.51, which the company attributed to inventory adjustments at its networking and communications customers, as well as inventory impairment losses from its business solutions subsidiary.
As the beginning of the year is usually the low season for the technology industry, Qisda expects display market demand to remain flattish this quarter, while demand for industrial PCs and security devices is expected to show steady growth.
The inventory level of the networking and communications industry is becoming healthier, with demand likely to gradually warm up, the company said.
As revenue in the first two months increased 6 percent year-on-year to NT$32.1 billion and there are positive signs this month, Qisda chairman Peter Chen (陳其宏) said that he is relatively optimistic that revenue in the first quarter would exceed that of the same period last year and expects revenue to grow in the second quarter judging from the current order visibility.
Overall revenue this year would be better than last year, he said, attributing that to strong growth momentum in the medical and artificial intelligence of things businesses, as well as a steady recovery in the display business.
The networking and communications business is expected to recover this year after suffering from inventory adjustments last year, Chen said.
Meanwhile, Qisda's board of directors approved a plan to reduce its capital by NT$3.47 billion, or 18 percent, to boost shareholder returns and earnings per share, and adjust its capital structure.
After the capital reduction, the company’s paid-in capital would fall to NT$15.8 billion from NT$19.27 billion, the company said in a regulatory filing.
As a result, Qisda plans to return NT$1.8 per share to shareholders following the capital reduction, in addition to a proposed cash dividend of NT$1.11 per share, the company said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS